[ SECRET POST #2889 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2889 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.



__________________________________________________



09.











Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 051 secrets from Secret Submission Post #413.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

"But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[(Anonymous)]

Er, no they don't. Even if they did, what kind of lame excuse is that?

Re: "But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[(Anonymous)]

It depends on how you define 'rip off', really. Some people will describe anything inspired by as ripped off -- by which all classic D&D is a Tolkien ripoff because of elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. And a lot of epic fantasy is inspired by either Tolkien directly or Tolkien via D&D.


Not everybody rips off Tolkien like Sword of Shannara did.

Re: "But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah. I think most of the people saying "what's the big deal?" in this thread haven't actually read the novel so they don't realize just how much it parallels Lord of the Rings. It's not borrowing a character or an idea here and there, it's practically the whole book and concept.

Re: "But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[cushlamochree]

Tolkien's influence on D&D is kind of complicated - IIRC Gygax actually strongly disliked Tolkien, and from what I can recall the earlier influences of D&D came more from heroic fantasy in the vein of Howard, Leiber, and Vance than from Tolkien.

However, that probably didn't last long, and I would certainly agree that the way that Tolkien and D&D ended up crashing into each other was extremely influential for fantasy as a genre.

E: But regardless of all that, yeah, Sword of Shannara is straight-up a shitty version of LotR.

Re: "But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[(Anonymous)]

Not everybody rips off Tolkien like Christopher Paolini did.

Another example.

Re: "But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[(Anonymous)]

Paolini managed the unique trick of ripping off multiple authors.
I still cringe at my brother's copy of Eragon.

Re: "But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[(Anonymous)]

Wasn't he, like, twelve? Or some other age where writing a retrospectively horrifying patchwork of ripoffs is only to be expected? The trouble is his connections in publishing got it published for him.

Re: "But everybody rips off Tolkien!"

[(Anonymous)]

He was 15 when he started writing it. It didn't get published until he was around 19 or 20.